Russian space agency Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei successfully launched to the space station on Friday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The new crew will dock at the station at 7:07 a.m. ET, and the hatches between the Soyuz spacecraft and the station will open around 9:00 a.m. ET. The mooring and arrival is also broadcast live.
This fast trip to the space station, which spans two orbits around the Earth and about three hours of travel time, was made possible by the new spacecraft Soyuz MS-18.
Their arrival brings the total number of crew members at the station to 10 residents.
Astronauts on the space station have prepared for the new crew by setting up additional sleeping stations and clearing ports.
Russian cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, along with NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, recently moved the Soyuz MS-17 capsule from port to make way for the latest crew to launch from Baikonur.
Ryzhikov, Kud-Sverchkov and Rubins arrived on the space station in the Soyuz capsule after its launch in October from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The crew members moved their spacecraft from the Rassvet module, which has a Earth-facing port, to the Poisk port, which faces space in March. This released the Rassvet module port for the new crew and their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.
Rubins, Ryzhikov and Kud-Sverchkov will return to Earth on April 17 in the Soyuz MS-17 spacecraft.
Members of the historic NASA-SpaceX Crew-1, including NASA astronauts Victor Glover Jr., Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who launched to the space station from the US in November, will also return after the launch of Crew-2 next month.
This second rotation using the NASA-SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft includes NASA astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, astronaut Akihiko Hoshide from Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and astronaut Thomas Pesquet from the European Space Agency.
Crew-2, which could be launched on April 22, will join Crew-1 on the space station before Crew-1 returns to Earth.
This is the second space flight for Vande Hei, the third space flight Novitskiy and the first for Dubrov.
Vande Hei was selected as an astronaut in 2009 and had his first space flight experience on the space station from September 2017 to February 2018. During his 168 days on board the station, Vande Hei conducted four spacewalks. This time, Vande Hei and the crew are working on multiple experiments, including studies on Alzheimer’s disease and portable ultrasound machines.
Vande Hei’s flight on the Soyuz spacecraft is part of a contract with Houston-based Axiom Space. In return, NASA will essentially save a seat on a future launch of a commercial spacecraft in 2023 for a non-NASA space station crew member.
While NASA is working with Boeing and SpaceX to ensure safe transportation of the crew to and from the space station using US-based launches, grabbing one seat on the Soyuz means there will always be at least one US crew member on the space station. to be.
Their launch will take place just three days before the 60th anniversary of the launch of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin as the first human in space, as well as the 40th anniversary of the first launch of NASA’s space shuttle.